Half an hour after Teddy Floos to the Ministry, Harry decides to make his way to his and Ginny’s quarters. He wants a cup of tea – and, honestly, the chance to talk about all of this with Ginny – and Teddy will know where to find him when he comes back. When he walks in, completely exhausted, he pauses at the sight before him: all three of his children, sprawled across the sofa. Lily’s lying on the sofa, with her legs propped up in Jamie’s lap, and Albus is curled up in the corner, cradling a steaming cup.

“Hi, Dad! There’s a Potter family meeting going on,” Lily explains, grinning up at him. “We were just about to come get you.”

“Well, I’m honoured to be invited,” Harry says dryly.

“Scorpius is with his dad,” Jamie says. “And Lils and I found Al moping, so we thought we’d bring him here.”

“It was my idea,” Lily says.

“I wasn’t moping!” Albus says at the same time.

“You looked a bit mopey, love,” Ginny puts in as she walks out from the bedroom, holding her journal. “Hi,” she adds to Harry, going up on her tiptoes and kissing him.

“You just saw each other barely five minutes ago, do you have to do that?” Al grumbles.

Harry pulls away from the kiss reluctantly.

“We don’t have to, no, but it’s fun,” Ginny says, and slips her free hand into Harry’s. “Want a cup of tea?” she asks.

“Merlin, yes,” Harry says. He steps over to the armchair, but before he can sit down, a silver-white wolf materialises in front of him all of a sudden.

“Isn’t that Teddy’s Patronus?” Jamie says.

The Patronus speaks in Teddy’s voice:

“Be there soon, ran into a delay.”

“What could that mean?” Jamie asks immediately.

“Think it means just what he said, Jamie,” Ginny says, waving her wand. A cup flies towards Harry, and he catches it just before boiling hot tea can spill into his lap.

“What sort of delay, though?” Lily says.

Even Al looks curious. “Maybe it’s—” he starts to say, but a knock at the door cuts him off.

Harry points his wand at the door. It swings open, and Draco Malfoy and Scorpius walk in.

Albus visibly lights up, and jumps to his feet, off the sofa. “Hi,” he says.

“Hi,” Scorpius says, looking just as happy as he hurries over to join Albus.

“Merlin’s sake, he’s only been gone an hour,” Jamie mutters.

“Potter,” Malfoy says, inclining his head. “McGonagall told me to use your fireplace to leave. Will you let me know if you find out anything more?”

Harry nods. “Will you let me know if you hear from… any of your old pals?” It’s mostly Goyle Harry’s interested in, but at this point, he’ll take any information he can get, especially after what Teddy told him about Rita Avery, what he suspects about Mulciber…

“They&rsq uo;re not my old pals, Potter,” Malfoy says.

“To be fair, though, you know what he means,” Ginny says.

Malfoy’s scowl fades a bit, and he nods curtly. “I’ll be in touch,” he says. He paused to ruffle Scorpius’s blond hair – “Dad,” Scorpius says, but looks a bit pleased – and then walks to the fireplace, disappeared in an emerald flash.

“What did you mean?” Jamie asks.

Harry turns to look at him. “Hmm?”

“When you asked Mr. Malfoy about his old pals, what did you mean?” Jamie presses on.

Harry glances at Scorpius briefly, and then says, “It’s not important.”

Jamie opens his mouth to protest, but Harry gives him a warning look and he falls silent. Harry has a feeling that it’s definitely not the last of Jamie interrogating him about it, though.

“Is it about who—who did it?” Scorpius asks in a small voice. He’s sat down on the sofa next to Albus. “Do you think a friend of my dad’s did it?”

“Not exactly,” Harry says, and pauses. “Why, do you think so?”

Scorpius shakes his head. “No, my dad’s friends are nice. They wouldn’t. But… the voices did seem familiar, don’t you think?” he asks Albus.

“I didn’t recognise them,” Albus admits. “I’ve talked to Rosie, she’s said she didn’t recognise them, either.”

Scorpius looks thoughtful.

Albus looks at Harry. “You know who it is, don’t you?” he asks. He doesn’t look accusatory, not really, but the look he affixes Harry with makes him seem – almost like his namesake – like he can see right through Harry, right down to what he’s thinking.

“I think I do, yes,” Harry says after a moment. “But we know that it was more than one person. So I don’t want to get ahead of myself—”

“Was it Anna?” Lily says.

“No,” Harry says. “It wasn’t. I’ve spoken to her – so has Jamie—”

“And Freddie,” Jamie says fairly. “Actually, I think Freddie has a crush on her.”

Lily wrinkles her nose. “He couldn’t find anyone better?”

“Lily, promise me you are not going to go yell at Freddie about his taste in girls,” Ginny says.

“I can’t promise that, Mum!” Lily says.

“Lily Luna Potter—”

“She& rsquo;s awful, she’s a bully!”

“She’s not that bad, really, her friends are way worse,” Jamie puts in.

“I don’t think she’s as bad as her friends. Nigel Goyle, he’s the worst,” Al says.

“Wait… Nigel…” Scorpius says, narrowing his eyes.

“Harry?”

That’s a new voice, Harry notes, and turns around. Stepping out of the fireplace, looking pale and sandy-haired, is Teddy. He didn’t notice him Floo in amidst all the commotion.

“Teddy!” Jamie says happily.

Teddy gives the others a small wave and then says, to Harry, “Can I talk to you a minute? It’s really important.”

*

&ldq uo;It’s just,” Teddy says, once Harry’s shown him into the tiny bedroom he and Ginny are sharing in their quarters, “I don’t know who else I can talk to about this.”

“About the arrest records?” Harry asks, confused, and moves to close the door behind them.

“About the—oh, no, not those,” Teddy says. “I, er. I didn’t bring those.”

Harry raises his eyebrow. “No?”

“No,&rdq uo; Teddy says, looking sheepish. “I was going to, but. I got distracted when I got to the Ministry.”

Harry perches on the end of the bed and waits. “Okay,” he says slowly. Teddy’s not the distracted sort, not ever, especially not about something as serious as this. Which means whatever’s happened, whatever was enough to distract Teddy, it’s serious.

Teddy doesn’t sit down. Instead, he paces up and down, from the doorway to the wall and back again. Harry watches him, bemused. He can’t discern the expression on Teddy’s face, and it’s worrying him. The last time Teddy was this upset, it was because he and Jamie had broken Ginny’s favourite teacup, past the point of a Reparo, and they were asking his advice on how to make it up to her. That was years ago, though, and Harry can’t think of what Teddy could have possibly done this time. Broken something in the Ministry, maybe? Wrecked something in the Auror department?

“Teddy, if you did something… whatever it is, mate, we can talk about it,” Harry says slowly. Whatever it is, he doesn’t even care. Messes can be cleaned up, but he can’t have Teddy being this upset.

Teddy looks at him then, and his eyes – just like Remus Lupin’s, Harry thinks with a pang – are wide and earnest. “It’s just… well… can I ask you something?”

“Sure,&r dquo; Harry says slowly.

“When did you first know that you wanted to propose to Ginny?”

Harry blinks. He was expecting a lot of questions, but not that. “Oh. Er…”

“It&rsqu o;s just,” Teddy continues, “I met Vic, at the Ministry. In the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.”

“What was she doing there?” Harry can’t help but wonder.

“Waiting for me,” Teddy says. “She had to tell me something.”

“Alright ,” Harry says. He can’t see where this is going, but he knows what Teddy’s like, and he has to just wait it out until Teddy gets to the point.

“She, um.” Teddy blushes, enough that his hair goes red, too. “Well… it’s a long story, but. We, uh. We thought that maybe she was pregnant. But she checked at Mungo’s today, and… she isn’t.”

“Oh. Oh. Is that… good?” Harry asks. He doesn’t think he’s ever felt so uncertain about a conversation before. He’s terrified of saying something wrong, somehow, but he’s got no idea what to respond. Luckily, Teddy doesn’t seem to mind.

“She thinks so,” Teddy says. “She’s proper relieved. We only moved in together a while ago, and… the timing’s not great, is it? She’s only going to graduate from being a trainee to being a Healer next year, and I’m transferring to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, so we’re both busy with work, and we will be for quite a while. Plus, we’re not married. And Bill would kill me.”

“Well… yeah, it’d be pretty inconvenient timing,” Harry says.

“But I was going to propose,” Teddy says, raking his hands through his (now red) hair. “When she told me yesterday, that she might be, I thought about it. I had a plan, and everything. And now that she’s not… well…”

Harry thinks he understands, then, what Teddy’s really asking him. “Are you disappointed?”

“If I were, wouldn’t that be awful to say?” Teddy says. “She doesn’t want a kid right now. And I don’t think I do, either. Not now. But… I thought, if she was pregnant, we could get married. Get a bigger house, maybe, not just a flat. Maybe move to Grimmauld Place. And now… now, we’ve got to just going back to how we were, we can’t do any of those things…”

“Ted dy, you can still do all those things,” Harry says.

Teddy doesn’t say anything, but he does sit down next to Harry. Harry rests his hand on Teddy’s shoulder, and Teddy leans into the touch. Harry remembers the first time he properly met Teddy, with Ginny, how Teddy was still a baby, barely a few months old, how he had looked up at Harry with big brown eyes, how Harry had thought I am going to do my best to make the world a good world for you.

“I reckon I always knew, with Ginny,” Harry says quietly. “It wasn’t a sudden moment, you know? I thought I couldn’t be with her, at first. And then we were done, the war was over, and I could be with her without worrying, and it was… good. Better than good. And then we were together, and we moved in together after she finished up with Hogwarts, and then I think I just realised one day what I’d always known.”

Teddy nods slowly. “Yeah. I think I know what you mean,” he says. “Do you, er. Do you think Ginny would agree to come shopping for rings with me?”

“Of course she would. I think you’d make her day,” Harry says.

Teddy grins. “Alright, then. I’ll ask her.”

“Good,” Harry says, and then gets up. “Come on, then.”

“Where are we going?” Teddy says.

“Back to the Ministry,” Harry says. “Well, that’s where I’m going, at any rate. Do you want to come, too?”

“Oh, right, yeah. Of course. The arrest records,” Teddy says. “I really am sorry about that. I was going to go back for them, but then – but then Vic started talking to me, and I just had to come talk to you.”

Harry bites back a grin, patting Teddy on the back. “I’m glad you did. Come on. Let’s go catch some Death Eaters before you plan a proposal.”

*

They don’t catch Death Eaters. What they do, once they arrive at at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement long after everyone’s left the Ministry, is sit at Teddy’s desk. Harry’s old office is now Padma Patil’s, so he doesn’t feel comfortable going in there, but Teddy’s desk is tiny, and quite cramped with both of them.

“Right, okay. Here it is. Avery was arrested with Mulciber, years ago. He got out last year,” Harry says, sitting back in the armchair he’s Summoned from the break room. They’ve gotten out Avery’s records, and it only confirms what they already knew: Avery got out of Azkaban last year, let out early on good behaviour. (The idea of which makes Harry snort now.) “In August,” he adds, setting aside the parchment that confirms his release.

“Wait, hang on… that was when the first graffiti incident happened, too,” Teddy says. He points his wand at Dawlish’s desk and says, “At least I think so. Wait, hang on – Accio! Look, look at this.” He hands Harry the file he’s just Summoned. “I had a look at the records that Dawlish has—”

“Snooped through his desk, you mean?” Harry says.

Teddy shrugs, completely unrepentant. “A little bit. And looked at the files from the archives. I looked for all possible links to our case, and I think I found something. Look at this. The eighteen of August, last year.”

Harry opens the case file up. There’s a picture, right at the front, in black and white: graffiti, at what seems to be a train station. It’s a picture of a skull: no snake, no glasses or scar, no text saying The Real Darkness, but undeniably familiar.

“Doesn’t it look like Rita Avery’s work?” Teddy says excitedly.

“It does,” Harry says, frowning. “Why was this reported last year? It’s just a bit of graffiti, why’s it in the Auror archives? Did Dawlish think this was connected to the Averys?” Before Teddy can answer, he taps the picture with his wand absentmindedly. Nothing happens: a still picture, then, not a moving one.

“Well, I think someone panicked about how similar it looked to the Dark Mark, and reported it in. Dawlish sent an Auror to look at it,” Teddy reports.

“He should’ve told me about it,” Harry mutters, but he’s unsurprised that he didn’t. During his time as Head of the Auror Office, he had to get quite used to Dawlish doing what he wants without running every move past him. “Who did he send to look at it?” he asks,

“Zara Khan,” Teddy says. “I asked her about it, when I read the file. She said it was her first assignment after graduating Auror training. She thought the resemblance was just coincidental.”

“And of course, Dawlish just took her word,” Harry says, sighing, and turns the page to see the report. He scans it quickly: it lines up with what Teddy’s said, even ends with a neat little Case closed. He closes the file and sets it on the desk with an unceremonious thud.

So. If they’re right, and this graffiti is the work of Rita Avery, then it stands to reason that it was prompted by Avery returning home from Azkaban. Avery got back last year, and said something to Rita, enough that she began experimenting with graffiti. And then, somehow, that led to someone sending Dementors to Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, to Nigel Goyle and his friends potentially attacking Scorpius.

Harry gets up and brushes off his robes. “Right. And Mulciber’s arrest records?” he asks. It’s his turn to start pacing, but he makes sure to stay within earshot of Teddy, as Teddy gets out Mulciber’s file to consult it.

“He’s still in Azkaban,” Teddy confirms. “Hasn’t been let out on good behaviour.”

Harry walks over to Teddy, his heart sinking as something occurs to him. “Right. Well… alright. I think you should go home, Teddy.”

“Wait. What?” Teddy says, frowning. “Why? Did I do something wrong?”

“No, not at all,” Harry says. “Good job today, really. But the Department of Magical Law Enforcement only has the arrest reports. What we don’t have is the visitation records of people in Azkaban, of who visits them.”

“So?” Teddy says.

“So,” Harry says grimly, “I need more information. Avery got out, but there’s no way he didn’t stay in contact with his old pals, like Mulciber. Especially if he’s passionate enough to spread his ideas to his daughter. But the only way I can confirm that is by looking at the visitation records.”

“Wait,&rdq uo; Teddy says. “So that means…”

Harry nods. “That means,” he says, “that I’m going to have to go to Azkaban.”